What an innovative means to attend a professional conference! Technology is truly advancing in a way that the needs of learners are met. The online conference provided an opportunity for my visual and auditory needs to be met. Silvia Tolisano of Jacksonville, Florida, USA facilitated a session entitled Week in the Classroom: “iPods- iSpeak- iSing- iListen- iLearn” that was of interest to me. The presentation was an online “auditory cast” that shared information about iPods (Mp3 players). This presentation was helpful to me because like Silvia Tolisano, I am a “newby” to iPods. She quoted a statement from Vicki Davis that I will commit to memory “There is power in being a newby.” She shared the potential and possibilities that the impact of iPods/Mp3 players can have on student learning. Some of the ideas were students using iPods to record current events, word of the week, digital audio cookbook, projects involving music which assists students in remembering concepts, i.e., mnemonics to remember the spelling of months of the year in Spanish. This year one of my second grade students and her mother compiled a recipe book of her classmates’ favorite foods. The digital audio cookbook would have been an innovative way to publish the cookbook.
Another session of interest was Week in the Classroom: “Listening to the voices: student empowerment
through collaborative learning projects beyond the school walls” by Sharon Peters of Montreal, QC, Canada. In one portion of her presentation, the audio interview was conducted with one of her 16-year-old students who shared his view of how the internet connects you to the real world and how learning certain subjects will apply to your future. Another part of her presentation provided students an opportunity to share their experience in using various technology tools through “interview videocasting”. This type of “interview videocasting” would serve as an opportunity for second graders (who enjoy talking) to share their ideas about a particular topic or story. Also, the questioning through videocasting could serve as tool for teachers to determine a student’s understanding of a particular concept.
In reviewing Sharon Peters’ Wikipage, the Technospuds Project peaked my curiosity. The site has creative projects for Pre-K-6 Elementary Classrooms. The activities are truly creative. The students learned about measurement through an egg roll project. There was also an egg roll fashion show, which was captured using a bubbleshare slideshow. There are other creative learning ideas on the Jenuine Techno site.
